


Truth in our Souls

by EmeraldFox



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: A little bit Creepy?, Alternate Universe, Gen, Gua'ulds, Horcruxes, I Don't Even Know, I got the idea from, It was a rainy day, Origin of Magic, Possession, Souls, Where do the wizards really come from?, Wizards, ish, so I had weird ideas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-11 00:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7017262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldFox/pseuds/EmeraldFox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry always knew he was different.<br/>What is the difference between a wizard and a muggle? Voldemort drifted on a line of life and death, and he learned the secret of Souls. </p><p>A Harry Potter AU, where wizards are more sinister than even they know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truth in our Souls

Harry always knew. Somehow, somewhere in his subconsciousness, he knew.

Because when he cried as a child, sometimes his body quieted on its own.

When he was hurt, his hands went through the motions of caring after a wound on their own.

The answers to difficult equations swam over his vision before he thought about it.

Harry always knew there was something inside him.

Sometimes it felt _he_ was inside _himself_ , when he woke up in the morning and his body wouldn’t move.

He had words for it ever since he saw a puppet show on the telly. Because that’s how he felt. Like a puppet master that moves his own arms and legs, and sometimes, somehow, another puppet master moves the strings for him.

~

“Yer a wizard, Harry!”

Oh. Oh, so _that’s_ what it was.

Except, it wasn’t that at all.

~

“Give me the stone, Harry Potter!” said the thing on the back of Quirrell’s head. _Voldemort_.

“Give it to me!”

“No!” yelled Harry, defiant. “Never!”

“Give it to me, and I will tell you how to reunite with your parents again. You want to meet your parents, don’t you?”

“You can’t do that. It’s impossible.” But what if it was?

“Oh, it’s possible. You don’t know where I have been, what I’ve _seen_! I have uncovered the secret of magic! The secret of our very souls!” There was a grotesquely gleeful expression on Voldemort’s face.

Harry couldn’t help it. “How?” escaped his lips before he could reconsider.

“I was wrong before, you know.” the creature grinned, monsterous.

“About wizards, and what makes us special. But after ten years as a spirit, I _know_. I know what we are. What magic really is.

“You will be the first person I ever told. Are you excited, Harry? You should feel honored.”

Harry trembled, and then froze. His shivering form froze all on its own, like it did when the other puppet master took control. He could feel his ears straining to hear every word.

“When my body was destroyed that night, I wasn’t killed. I took too many protective measures to die. But my body was destroyed. What was left was a spirit. A soul. I already knew souls were real, but no one before me really realised what they are.

“The souls, I then came to understand, are _all_ we are. I was a bodiless soul, but I could think, I could do rudimentary magic. I was alive, despite my body’s death. How extraordinary! I possessed animals, rode in their bodies, but they were no good. The strain on them was too great, and they died in days. But soon, I mastered driving them, nestling into their bodies and becoming them, for as short amount of time as I had before they died. When I came upon the first human, I took the opportunity for what it was. I possessed him, a muggle man, and I _became him_. It felt extraordinary! I took root in his brain, his heart, I knew all he knew, remembered all his memories. And he was _nothing_! There was no soul. There was nothing in him, just a body and a mind. No soul at all. That’s what muggles _are_ , I then realised. Empty bodies, with no magic. After the possession, the body had magic. Weak, pitiful magic, but magic it was. I could channel my magic through his flesh, and it was much more efficient than using animals for the same thing. I hopped from muggle to muggle, and some were better at channeling my magic than others. Later, I found a girl who knew of magic, who had a magical relative. And her body _sang_! I could do the first serious magic through her. I lived as her and I practised, until she could pass as a witch. I got a wand when I went to Greece. I walked among wizards and no one noticed a _thing_!

“I possessed a wizard’s body, then. A young Greek boy, untrained and homeschooled. And then I found it, a soul like mine. It was hosted in the body like I was, hugging snugly his brain and heart. To possess him, I had to fight for control. I won, of course. I have never met a wizard as strong in magic as myself, and his soul was weak. The soul fled, and I never found it again. His body, however, was made to host a wizard. Something about it was different than muggle bodies. I studied and studied, hopping from wizard to wizard, discarding the empty bodies after they lost their use.”

Harry was feeling faint, but still listening intently. Disassociated with his own body, grasping at every word.

“Quirrell crossed my path, then, and I hopped over to him. I didn’t exile him from the body, however. I kept him, chained, under my control. Two souls in one vessel. It was another experiment. How fortunate that Dumbledore decided to move the Philosopher’s stone to Hogwarts for safekeeping. It would be difficult to get to it any other way. It is my goal, you know, to use it. To make a body _perfect_ for channeling magic, an immortal body I could host in for eternity. That’s what wizards _really_ are, you see. Parasites that took humans as hosts, influenced their bodies with their magic and made them the perfect channeling tools. And they _don’t know_! As soon as they lose their bodies they forget. But I won’t forget. I will take my satisfaction from knowing I was right. Wizards are the superior species. A predator. _A master_!”

Harry always knew he was a puppet master pulling the strings, because he could feel another being inside himself doing the same. But was that really it? Was he a parasite possessing a body? Was he Harry Potter? Who were his parents, how was he born? _What were wizards anyway?_

“Your parents are out there, drifting souls, searching for a vessel to possess. I can find them. Only I have the power! Give me the stone, and I will grant the family you seek.”

~

Harry didn’t give him the stone. Rather, his touch burned Quirrell’s flesh, and Voldemort fled. He never told anyone what occurred in his meeting with the killer of his parents. He _couldn’t_. It felt too horrible to utter, too horrible a secret to share.

He looked around the Great Hall, at his friends, at Slytherins, at the professors’ table. Were they all souls, possessing people? Did any of them know?

His eyes stopped on the Nearly Headless Nick, and he stared. The ghost looked like a _person_. If he thought himself to be anything different, that would surely be shown in his shape.

After the dinner ended, Harry made an excuse to his friends and ran after the ghost.

“Sir Nicholas! Sir Nicholas, wait! I want to talk to you.”

The ghost turned towards him and raised an inquiring eyebrow.

“Well, what can I do for you, Mister Potter?”

“Not here,” said Harry. He led them to an abandoned room and closed the door behind him.

“Well, this is mysterious. What do you with to ask, young Potter?” said Sir Nick.

Now that they were alone, Harry couldn’t think of a single thing to say. He stared helplessly at the gost, feeling lost.

“How did you die?” He swallowed and shook his head. “No, I mean, how did it feel? You are a soul that didn’t go on, right? That’s what muggles think about ghosts. So…” he trailed off, uncertain.

“Well, that’s a bit rude, to ask questions like that. But I heard what happened to you a few days ago, ghastly incident. Perhaps your curiosity is warranted. Hmm, let’s see...

“There are theories, about what we ghosts are. Some say we aren’t really souls, just a memory left behind, a part of us that yearned for life. I couldn’t tell you one way or the other, but I do feel lesser than I was before my death. I died and I could feel my soul leaving. I grasped at it, and i think I caught it, anchored it to this plane. Then it was dark, and next I came to, I was a ghost. That’s all I know.”

Harry was quiet for some time, mulling the information over. He looked at the ghost, biting his lip. He took a big breath to gather his courage, then asked.

“Could you possess anyone? Like Voldemort could?”

Sir Nick flinched, his incorporeal body flying backwards a bit.

“No, child. Never. He Who Must Not Be Named is an aberration. He isn’t truly dead, I’m sure. No ghost could do such a thing. It’s impossible.” he said firmly.

“Oh. All right.” said Harry faintly. What _are_ ghosts, then?

“Is there anything else, child?” asked Sir Nicholas.

“Um, no. Sorry. I just… needed to know. Um. Could you not… tell anyone? Please?”

The ghost smiled sadly.

“As you wish, young Potter. I hope my answers made you feel better, not worse.”

“Oh, yes. Yes.” Harry hurried to assure him. “I’m fine.”

After saying goodbye, he made his way to the lake, enjoying a moment of peace and quiet.

What were ghosts? They weren’t souls, obviously. Were they, maybe, possibly, the body?

An image of how the brain saw itself. When the body was dying, changed by the soul to be a bit more magical, it reached for the soul and caught a piece of its magic. Taking that bit of magic and preserving the image of a human body in life, in this world, like a makeshift soul. If a wizard didn’t know that body and soul were separate, the ghost resembled the body only.

An imprint of the host with the help of magic.

“Oh Merlin! What am I thinking?” He suddenly felt sick. He felt like Voldemort infected his thoughts, making him think horrible things. But they _felt_ true, and that was the worst of all.

~

_I am a wizard._

For the first time, Harry wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! You can find me on tumblr as iamemeraldfox, if you have any questions!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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